Metro

Saving An Icon

Young volunteers clean up vandalized Michigan Central Station in Detroit.

Stephanie Steinberg
Special to the Jewish News

A

fter the demolitions of the J.L.
Hudson department store and
the old Tiger Stadium, few iconic
structures remain in downtown Detroit.
Michigan Central Station is next on the
eradication list, but local teen volunteers
— armed with shovels, buckets and a pur-
pose — plan on changing that.
Two nonprofit organizations, Save
Michigan Central and Summer in the City
(SITC), have partnered to save the train
station from being bulldozed — which the
Detroit City Council voted to do at a meeting
in April. On May 18, City Council delayed its
decision after the station's owner asked for
another chance to redevelop the building.
Today the station, built in 1913 in the
beaux-arts neoclassical style, is known for its
appearances in films such as Transformers,
The Island and Four Brothers. In its heyday,
Central Station was home to one of Detroit's
main modes of transportation. After the last
train left the station in 1988, people have
vandalized the building by coating pillars
with graffiti, smashing windows and tearing
apart walls.
The two groups are working to make the
station more presentable by bringing volun-
teers throughout the summer to plant flow-
ers, clear out the heaps of glass, cement and
dirt and remove the graffiti.
Since 2002, SITC has brought high school
volunteers — many of them Jewish — into
Detroit to work on projects such as garden-
ing, painting murals, tutoring elementary
school kids and demolishing buildings.
Ben Falik of Huntington Woods estab-
lished the organization with friends when
he came home from Columbia University in
New York City one summer. Since then, the
organization has expanded from 14 volun-
teers to about 180 volunteers per day.
"We knew it was going to be a big sum-
mer," Falik said. "Between the scarcity of
summer jobs and — whether we owe it to
Obama or the bad economy — people want
to get involved."

Making A Difference
Elizabeth Koltonow, 18, of Beverly Hills has
volunteered with SITC the last three sum-
mers. Now a sophomore at Grand Valley
State University in Allendale, Koltonow
decided to return this summer because she
said the city still needs help.

01.

Brooke Isaacs and Lauren Mukamal, both

16 and Matt Gilson, 15, all of Farmington

Hills clean an interior room.

Teens help clean debris from the train station.

"It's important to let people know we still
care about Detroit, and we're not letting it fall
apart',' she said.
Koltonow said she thinks it's awful how
the once-busy train station deteriorated to
its current status. "I don't know how it could
have gotten to this point in 20 years': she
said. "It's really sad how people come in, tear
it apart, steal scrap metal and spray paint it."
First-time SITC volunteers Lauren
Mukamal and twins Danielle and Brooke
Isaacs, all 16 and from Farmington Hills,
spent last Friday filling buckets with debris
piled in one of the station's rooms.
After two hours of work, Mukamal said
the room already looked better than when
they had arrived.
"There was lots of dirt, fallen bricks and
cement everywhere,' she said."It was just a
mess:'
Danielle added that it's nice to get corn-

munity service hours for doing something
she likes with friends.
Ten Teen Service Staff from Oakland
County-based Tamarack Camps volunteered
recently with SITC at Phoenix Academy in
Detroit, where they painted a mural over
graffiti. At the end of the day, they joined the
rest of the volunteers at the train station to
celebrate at SITC's weekly Friday barbecue.
Carly Rosen, 16, of West Bloomfield said
she enjoyed painting the school.
"I really felt like I was helping out',' she
said."It made me have a good feeling inside."
Rosen said she thinks it's important
groups are trying to save the station because
it is "one of the symbols of Detroit."
Last Friday was the fourth day volunteers
worked at the station. Since then, the two
groups have filled four dumpsters and have
planted more than 1,000 flowers.
John Mohyi, 21, of West Bloomfield is the

leader of Save Central Station. He said the
ultimate goal is to renovate the site so that
it may once again become a fully operating
train station.
Besides receiving donations from local
businesses and residents, Mohyi is working
on large donors to sponsor the revitaliza-
tion of the building.
The Ambassador Bridge Company, which
owns the building as well as the Detroit-
Windsor Ambassador Bridge, donated all
the supplies needed for this project.
Falik said SITC — which funds its own
projects through donations and is expe-
riencing financial difficulties because of
the economy — would not have been able
to participate at the station without the
Ambassador Bridge Company's help.
"Summer in the City is $15,000 short of
its budget, so staff members are working
double duty: leading projects and trying to
raise extra money so the program doesn't
have to be scaled back': he said.
Although there remains a lot of work to be
done, Mohyi said he is confident the station
will still be standing in the future, mainly
because "there are too many powerful people
that want to see the station saved:' 111

Stephanie Steinberg, 19, was a 2008 JN

Teen2Teen summer intern and will be a

sophomore at the University of Michigan.

Taking a break outside the vandalized Michigan Central Station in Detroit: Steven

Hertzberg, 16, Evan Ruby, 15, Kenny Selander, 14, and Katan Murthy, 16, all of West

Bloomfield, and Anna Kemeny, 15, of Bloomfield Hills.

Want to donate or get involved in
saving Michigan Central Station? Visit
www.savemichigancentral.com . To
volunteer or donate to Summer in the
City, go to www.summerinthecity.com .

July 30 2009

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